Putting the Puzzle Together in Citizen Kane

Thompson searches for the meaning of a word--rosebud--in Citizen Kane. He does not find the meaning by the end of the film, but he does find everything else around it. Had Thompson gone to one of the storerooms of Xanadu and found the sled, it wouldn't make much sense to him, or the audience. But Thompson did find the context for "rosebud." Yes, the word rosebud might refer to Kane's sled, which may indicate a yearning for his childhood; or it might refer to a woman--or a part of a woman, as some rumors suggest--but those conclusions could never be made without the knowledge held only by those closest to him.

The people in Kane's life reconstruct the man like newspapers never could. Kane, as a public figure, could only be analyzed by his actions in the public eye. The newsreel reveals those actions--the newspapers, the marriages, etc. But that's only the Kane that Kane wanted to be--the persona that was as manipulated as the sensationalist news printed by his newspaper. Thompson, tasked with finding the man beneath this image, turned to the people that made up his personal relationship. He found the real Kane, the Kane that exists in the minds of people, the man behind the hype.

Orson Welles is known for his dramatic entrances, most notably in The Third Man, and Kane is no different. We first see the young-adult Kane as Thatcher lowers his newspaper to see Kane sitting at his desk in the newsroom, sipping coffee. Thatcher's personal account of the adult Kane begins when we see the man behind the paper--a visual metaphor. We are literally peeking into the personal life of Kane, the one that lies beyond the media. This scene is matched to a later scene when Kane relinquishes his empire, but instead of a newspaper he is behind a contract.

So once we get the context to put Rosebud in, how do we know where this particular puzzle piece goes? Is the puzzle even complete at this point? Of course it's not. We've never ventured deep enough into Kane's mind and Thompson never speaks to Kane directly. This puzzle is still missing enough pieces to not really know where "rosebud" fits. We can make guesses--the sled, his childhood, a certain woman's intimate body parts--but we'll never really know without all the pieces of the puzzle.

Kane has its own consciousness, as if it were self-aware. The content of the movie--like the puzzle--mirrors the structure of the movie. Like Susan, we're trying to put together the puzzle of Kane's life. By the end of the movie, so is Kane. The shot of many Kanes in two mirrors haunts both Kane and the audience, and it also says something about Kane's sense of self. Who is the real Kane--the one we see in the papers or the one that only his companions see? What does it mean to be Kane, or for that matter, what does it mean to be anyone?

This mirror shot reflects both the cinematography and the form of Kane. The uniqueness of the film's deep-focus allows us to see farther than before in film. Two mirrors facing each other reflect into eternity, making an infinitely long shot. Deep focus strives to create visuals like this, seeing into eternity, and seeing in a way the human eye can't. The two mirrors also suggest circularity, which we see in the plot of Kane.

Putting the puzzle together is something we actively take part in as moviegoers. Citizen Kane was groundbreaking in its structure and we can see its influences in everything that came after it: Memento, most Tarentino films, Sunset Boulevard, The Machinist, Lolita, most noirs from classics like The Chase to moderns like Brick, and countless others. Putting the story together keeps the audience engaged and the entire character of Thompson only exists to supply that. We can take part in Citizen Kane through Thompson, like he's a personification of human curiosity. But at the end of Kane the "No Trespassing" sign reminds us that no matter how engaged or curious we might be, we're still always going to be missing some pieces of that puzzle.